Foreign exchange
SEC cracks down on Ponzi scheme
WASHINGTON, DC - The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on an alleged $27.9 million Ponzi scheme involving foreign exchange trading firm Gold-Quest International (GQI).
CBA reshuffles forex
SYDNEY - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made two key hires for its foreign exchange trading team in Sydney and has restructured its global sales group.
Czech forex volumes double in six months
PRAGUE - The credit crisis led to a sharp rise in Czech koruna forwards and foreign exchange swaps volumes in April, according to statistics released last week.
Saxo in $18.8m acquisition
SYDNEY - Saxo Bank is expanding its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, with plans to acquire a 35% stake in Sydney-based broker Tricom.
UniCredit hires Craven to drive Asia expansion
HONG KONG - UniCredit has hired Joe Craven to head the bank's fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales and trading business in Asia.
Credit Suisse names global head of forex
NEW YORK - Credit Suisse has made Steve Yanez head of its global foreign exchange business in New York as of May 1.
Bawag Bank licenses GFI's Fenics FX
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's Bawag Bank has taken a three-year licence for pricing and risk management software Fenics FX, to price foreign exchange.
Exchange-traded forex volumes up 41% in April
CHICAGO & NEW YORK - CME Group foreign exchange volume averaged 613,000 contracts a day for the month of April, up 41% on the same month last year. Average daily volumes for FX contracts in the three-month period ending April were also the highest…
New governor overhauls South Korea's FSS
SEOUL - Kim Jong Chang, the new governor of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), has initiated a shake-up of the financial regulator aimed at cutting bureaucracy, streamlining operations and attracting talent from the private sector.
Credit Suisse and Currenex switch on to Fidessa
LONDON - Buy-side technology provider Fidessa LatentZero is set to add interfaces to Credit Suisse, Currenex and Dublin-based foreign exchange broker Baxter-FX to its Minerva OEMS (order and execution management system) by the third quarter.
RBI releases details of rupee futures plans
MUMBAI - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended a single dollar-rupee contract of $1,000 for the introduction of exchange-traded futures into the country.
Systematic managers profit from volatile March
STAMFORD, CT - Rules-based currency managers outperformed their discretionary peers in March, amid volatility at levels not seen since the bailout of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998.
BarCap offers retail white-label service
LONDON - Barclays Capital is breaking into the mass and private wealth management markets for foreign exchange with the launch of a white-label margin FX trading service called Barx White Label for Private Investors.
Tide of writedowns rolls on for banks
NEW YORK, LONDON & ZURICH - Foreign exchange results continue to provide much-needed good news for investment banks, as major players announced a fresh wave of billion-dollar credit-related writedowns last week.
Icap and Korea Money Broker form alliance
LONDON & SEOUL - Icap and Korea Money Brokerage Corp, announced on April 24 that they have formed a strategic alliance to further develop electronic spot foreign exchange trading in Korea.
ABN trio joins the PrivateBank-Chicago
CHICAGO - Three former ABN Amro/LaSalle senior forex managers have resurfaced at the PrivateBank-Chicago (PBC), a unit of PrivateBancorp, to head the company's newly established capital markets business.
CFTC slams Alaron Trading
CHICAGO - Chicago-based futures trading company Alaron Trading is due to pay $299,000 in penalties by today (April 28) for failing to supervise employees.
G-3 corporates increase their currency hedging
NEW YORK, LONDON & TOKYO - The average year-end global hedging ratio has risen 13% since December, according to the results of a G-3 corporate hedging survey by JP Morgan.
RBS readies post-merger Asia forex trading team
HONG KONG & SINGAPORE - The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is considering relocating its G-11 currencies trading hub from Hong Kong to Singapore, according to sources, although its plans are not yet finalised.
Deadline for e-FX Awards imminent
The closing date for FX Week 's 5th annual e-FX Awards is fast approaching. To be in the running for one of these awards we must receive your entry by the close of play on May 2, 2008.
Hotspot FXi launches data service
JERSEY CITY, NJ & LONDON - Hotspot FXi is the latest platform to take advantage of the demand for foreign exchange market data from model-based and algorithmic trading shops, selling market data from its historical archive.
Banks give boost to TradingScreen
NEW YORK - Foreign exchange technology vendor TradingScreen has updated its trading platform to include Credit Suisse's advanced execution services FX algorithms.